By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
“The numbers are staggering,” WJOL’s Scott Slocum said recently when seeing the size of pensions being doled out in Illinois. The morning show host had Wirepoints on the air to talk about Joliet-area school districts after he saw our recent piece on the expensive teachers contract being negotiated in nearby Naperville.
The chaos that’s happening in the state right now, we argued on the show, is distracting Illinois residents from keeping an eye on new government-worker contracts that will soon hit them with even higher property taxes and larger pension burdens.
Joliet residents, for example, are next in line if they don’t engage. The city has two school districts where teacher contracts are expiring soon. Joliet PSD 86’s contract ends next year and Joliet Township HSD’s 204’s contract ends in 2024.
City residents already pay an effective property tax rate of 2.5 percent, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue. That’s higher than the state average of nearly 2 percent and far higher than the average 1 percent a homeowner in Missouri pays and the 0.8 percent a homeowner in Indiana or Kentucky pays.
About two-thirds of a Joliet resident’s property tax bill goes to school districts.
Here are some of the district benefits Joliet residents should keep their eye on:
Long-term contracts
One of the big benefits of government worker contracts is their length. Multi-year contracts mean guaranteed raises and a host of other benefits that are locked in over the life of the contract. That means residents have to pay up no matter what happens to taxpayer incomes, the economy or government finances in the meantime.
Agreements typically span three to five years, but sometimes hit ten years, as evidenced by Palatine’s 2016 teachers contract. In contrast, most Illinois private sector employees are what’s called “at-will” employees. That means an employer can terminate a work contract for virtually any reason other than race, gender, etc.
Educator salaries
The average educator in District 204 makes nearly $80,000, while those in District 86 make nearly $60,000. Career employees – those with 25 to 30 years experience – make $120,000 and $88,000, respectively.
It’s not just teacher salaries that matter. Joliet’s two superintendents each earn more than $200,000 a year, while the average administrator salary across both districts exceeds $100,000 annually.
Salary “spiking”
Both Joliet 86 and 204 have salary spiking provisions in their current contracts. Salary spikes are guaranteed raises given to teachers the last few years before they retire. Those raises increase the final average salary used to determine a starting pension, which in turn increases lifetime pension benefits.
Joliet HSD 204’s contract grants teachers 6 percent raises over their final four years, while Joliet PSD 86’s contract grants 4 percent raises.
Sick leave
Both Joliet school districts allow their teachers to accumulate hundreds of days worth of unused sick leave during their careers. Teachers can turn in their unused sick leave and get credit for working up to an additional two years. That boosts their pension benefits by increasing their number of years worked.
District 204 allows teachers to accumulate up to 225 days of unused sick leave, while District 86 allows teachers to accumulate 340 days, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2021 Teacher Salary Study.
That’s a deal nobody in the private sector gets. Companies typically offer sick days on a use it or lose it basis.
Health insurance benefits
Both Joliet districts also heavily subsidize health insurance for their teachers and their families.
Joliet HSD 204 subsidizes 80 percent of their teacher health insurance plan. That means the district pays for over $8,000 of a teacher’s annual $10,000 in health insurance premiums. The district also pays for all or most of teacher and family dental, vision, life, prescription and disability insurance as well, according to the 2021 Teacher Salary Study.
Joliet PSD 86, meanwhile, covers 95 percent of a teacher’s $8,300 a year health insurance premium, as well as her dental, life, prescription and vision insurance.
Family health insurance costs and the subsidies offered by the districts are included in the graphic below.
Pension costs
Early retirement ages, the salary spiking and sick leave perks mentioned above, and automatic 3 percent cost-of-living adjustments all contribute to Joliet teachers’ generous retirement benefits.
The average recently-retired career educator, including teachers and administrators, from Joliet Twp HSD 204 began collecting benefits at the age of 59 with a starting pension of nearly $98,000 a year, according to TRS member data received via a 2021 FOIA request. Each of those career retirees can expect to collect, on average, about $3.1 million in benefits during retirement.
Joliet PSD 86 career retirees receive a smaller starting pension of $72,000, but can still expect to receive nearly $2.4 million in benefits.
The biggest pensioners at the two districts can expect to collect far more than that. The top 10 retirees – many of whom retired before age 60 – are on track to get more than $4.6 million in benefits. And District 204’s top pensioner, former superintendent Cheryl McCarthy, will receive $8.4 million.
More power
The legislature wants to further entrench union power through a constitutional amendment in 2022 that would enshrine collective bargaining powers as a right for government workers. The resolution would prohibit the state and local governments from passing any law that “interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively.”
“When does this madness end?” Slocum asked us on the show.
Never, if Illinois lawmakers get their way.
Read more about the power of public sector unions:
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
I think this is an unfair and unsustainable program that adds no value to improving education but instead is a mechanism that hurts every taxpayer and citizen of Illinois.
The only taxpayer self defense is for every professional segment to demand the same State-guaranteed compensation packages. One professional segment which has become most overburdened by increased taxes demanded, work performance demanded, and the disturbing requirement to tolerate hollow expressions of ‘we love our heros!’ and ‘we appreciate you!’ from Illinoisans is the medical profession. Maybe ALL Illinois citizens do not HATE all doctors and nurse while they at the same time ADORING and REVERING teachers and administrators to the point of State bankruptcy…but how do you expect Illinois doctors and nurses to know that? And why do you expect… Read more »
I wouldn’t care if the cost of obscene compensation was confined to the district, i.e. they are 100% responsible for the costs, but it’s not making the district largely unaccountable. That’s the problem.
The state has underfunded their portion of the Illinois teacher’s retirement for over 40 years.
I feel it is good to give teachers an incentive to be at school as much as possible. Do you want a sub teaching your child more than absolutely necessary?
I do feel we need to consolidate school districts. Cutting in half at least the number of administrators. They usually make twice what the teachers make. We need more staff on the classrooms not the office,
WOKE NONSENSE ALERT: WHY IS AMERICAN EDUCATION FAILING? — Because Kids Are Being Taught By Far Left Lunatic Fake Teachers — Like This Shit-Stain Who Is Recruiting Kids To Hate America/Be Antifa Terrorists – Fox News — And This Trash-Bag Who Teaches Kids To Disrespect The American Flag – New York Post — NYC Wants Schools To Rethink Honor Rolls Deemed ‘Detrimental’ To Students Not Making Grade – New York Post — Education’s Race To The Bottom- Townhall — No Wonder That Home Schooling In The US Has Doubled In The Last Year – Daily Mail — Higher Education Isn’t… Read more »
Correction: Per the Joliet D204 contract: “Should the Illinois legislature enact legislation which increases the limit on final years’ salary increases above the current 3% limitation, the teacher’s salary increase…will be increased to any such new limit, not to exceed 6%.”
Most teacher contracts entered into around this time have that same clause. Pretty much every school district went back to 6% limit once they were no longer required to foot the extra cost of anything above 3%. The teacher unions were smart enough to add this provision anticipating a Rauner loss.
You’re correct nixit. We’ve updated the article.
The 40% funded status of the TRS pension fund is not a negotiable item during collective bargaining or during arbitration or mediation. In other words, there is zero consideration given to the amount short in the pension fund (the unfunded liability) when the local school district administration and local school board jointly negotiate pay and benefits with the local teacher union. One alleged reason for the zero consideration, is the TRS unfunded liability is a state responsibility. Note, a portion of the TRS unfunded liability is allocated to the local school district in the school district annual audit (financial report… Read more »
It would be helpful to post years of service and years worked
And do employee contributions include board paid TRS?
The salary schedule add-on method of board paid TRS hikes gross pay.
All this largesse is producing excellent results in the Joliet school system, right? I’ll bet their test scores are among the top in the nation. Oh wait, never mind…..
But hey, they intend to provide plenty of CRT for that money. But it will have to be video instruction, since many of the students cannot read at grade level.
Transparency! That is what is needed. But in the state constitution it says public education K-12 shall be free with no $$$ amount attached to it so what other outcome do we really expect.